Tuesday, June 23

Children's Museum with Gabe


This was the rainiest JUNE ever!!!! Luckily yesterday Kath took pity on us & we all made a field trip to the Kids Museum. The boys got to run around & build stuff & throw things & run around. I don't know how much longer the rain can last....



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Sunday, June 21

Fathers Day Strawberry Shortcake






Hope all the fathers & not-so-fathers and folks with fathers & people who just like Sundays had a wonderfull day. We had a nice morning made better with fresh picked Strawberries from the Farm. Later the boy & Em made some cookies - looking at this photo he says: "I look like Farah and Mommy looks like Dan"

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Friday, June 19

Tonight's Dinner

Beer-Braised Sirloin Tips With Mushroom Sauce

Mix the mustard, brown sugar, thyme, ginger, paprika, and 1 tsp. salt in a small bowl until well combined.
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves -- crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika (didn't have)

Coat both sides of the steaks with the spice mix.
sirloin tip steaks -- 3/4 to 1 inch thick I used about a lb.

I let these sit in the rub for a couple of hours.

Prepare Mushrooms -
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, preferably a mix of half shiitakes and half cremin
Remove and discard the stems from the shiitakes, if using, and trim the stem ends from the cremini. Wipe all the mushrooms clean and slice them 1/4 inch thick.

Heat Olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the steaks and sear them until nicely browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove the Steaks.

Reduce the heat to medium, add 1 Tbs. of the butter to the pan, and let it melt.
Add the mushrooms, the scallion whites, and 1/4 tsp. salt and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the mushrooms soften and brown, 4 to 6 minutes.


Pour in about a cup of dark beer (I used amber Clausthaler) and 2 tsp. Worcestershire.

Scrape the bottom of the pan with the spoon, raise the heat to medium high, bring to a boil, and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes.

Return the steaks and any accumulated juices to the pan, cover tightly with a lid or foil, and reduce the heat to a low simmer.

Braise, turning the steaks after 8 minutes, until tender and just cooked through (they should be easy to slice with a paring knife), about 16 minutes total.

Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and slice them thinly. Cut the remaining 1 Tbs. butter into four pieces and swirl them into the sauce. Stir in the scallion greens and taste for seasoning.

Serve the steak slices topped with the sauce. I served them over noodles.



Endive, Stilton, and Bacon Salad


4 bacon slices
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 endives (1 lb), cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 oz Stilton, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves


Cook bacon until crisp and transfer to paper towels to drain. Whisk together oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Add endives, Stilton, and parsley and toss to coat. Crumble bacon over salad.

We're Here, We're Queer, We Love Pixar



Two big events in BeanTown this past weekend - actually three, Gay Pride Festivities & Parade; RiverFest in Cambridge and UP showing Downtown. Sadly my only photo from Pride is em & boy waiting to head home with balloons at the Park St T Station. The parade ws fun - but like Mexican Food - You just can't compare it to what you get in San Francisco. I think the whole thing passed in just under 3 hours as opposed to SF's over 5 hour behemouth. We did see Lots of Kids & Lots of Churches, a little bit of Leather & our teacher from the boys upcoming Pre-School. Oh, and we got Donuts - Yumm.

At Riverfest later in the day we played with clay & with lots of cool juggling toys.

Then on SUNDAY - Blasto & Cousin Farah both went to the MOVIES - for the FIRST TIME EVAH!!!
We went downtown to see UP - which was PG & not G & would be scary for a little kid who doesn't have a dog that barks constantly thereby making him somewhat callous to attack dogs. After the movie Em had to celebrate with a little spin on the Carousel.

Happy Pride to all my SF & NYC peeps.

Thursday, June 18

Building a SkyScraper


This is what monito gets up to after repeated viewings of B-O-B the builder. He calls it building a skyscraper - it consists of piling everything up that he can find
-0 Recycling
-0 diaper bag contents
-0 pens, pencils from desk
-0 Various toys
and yes even a pair of his underwear

All of these are stacked up behind my back as I sit at the no longer as comfortable as it once was Aero Type chair.

I guess I should be celebrating his artistic & engineering abilities.

Coming Soon .... Building a foundation...

Tuesday, June 16

Dragon Boats

Sorry -- these photos are a little late - I have been a bit slow to update these days. We are having the weirdest June - a couple of days of beautiful weather (usually the weekends) and then 4 or 5 days of gray and rainy. Its kept me a bit out of sorts. and You all know that I will be bitching about the summer heat in no time at all....

But on a good note the fun events along the Charles have begun full force. We had the River Fest last week - lots of arts but no photos (sorry) and the week prior was the Dragon Boat Fest. Blasto & I went down at the end of the afternoon to check out the food, the taiko drumming & off course the boats




You can't tell from these shots that people were convinced that it was going to start pouring rain any minute.... the clouds were all at my back.


I do dig having a river as my almost back yard.

Wednesday, June 10

Weights & Measures

Today we had our annual well-baby (or should I say big boy) visit with the Doctor. The lil' Monkey was generally charming & much relieved to know that there were no shots in store for him - although mama got one (ouch). So he was pronounced to be in perfect health & right where he has been all along on the growth charts...

So without further ado...

Height 38" or about 96 cm putting him around the 55th Percentile
and Weight 13.4 kg or 29.54 pounds --- How can he not be 30 pounds YET???? Putting him at about 25th percentile for weight for his age.

Then we got to have lunch with Mommy & got a sticker book at the used book store - all in all not a bad morning!!